Haggling is part of the pawn shop experience, but the seller always has a leg up on you because they know exactly how much they paid for an item. However, according to Redditt user beefjerkybandit, at least one pawn shop chain, Pawn America, has an easy to decipher code that they put on every item.

Since pawn shops often don't keep a detailed log of every item they've purchased and the price they paid for it, they'll often use a simple ten letter code. Beefjerkybandit explains:

If you're ever looking to buy something from a Pawn America store you can tell how long the item has been out and how much the pawn shop has into the item by reading the tag. The date is always printed on the tag. You get a better deal on items that have been on the floor longer. They use a code so an employee can decide how much they can take off if the customer asks. So it goes like this, MARY LOUISE=M-1, A-2, R-3, Y-4 and so on till you get to E-0. So the code will read, YLEE or $45.00. Happy bargain shopping!

Essentially, each letter equals a number ranging from one through ten. Reddit user MatthewT1 created a a simple script to quickly translate the Pawn America code. A quick Google search also revealed a post in the Garage Journal forums showing how to decipher a code at a shop by working your way up from 0 (the easiest to figure out). The poster also mentions a few other common codes (Mary Louis is in there), including Moneytalks, Blackhorse, and Volkswagen.

Not all pawn shops use these codes, but a number of them do. If nothing else it'll be a good test of your cryptography skills.